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Thursday, September 29, 2016

Are you able to recall what is the first cake you have baked? My virgin attempt on baking was this simple chocolate cake (without frosting) which I tried decades ago! That was the time when I got a new oven for my new home. ^0^ I can still remember I was so enthusiastic when I just got my new oven and a simple handheld mixer hahaha....and guess what? I'm am still using the same old equipment till now!! As I'm an amateur in baking during that time, glad that I've chosen a simple and straight forward cake recipe to fall on and it did not turn out too badly. From there on I explored and read a lot of recipes and improved on my baking skills. Guess I fare not too bad with all these years of trial and errors. Today I just want to bake this simple chocolate cake again with simple chocolate frosting so that I could document it down in my blog. ^0^

Back to this cake. As I've mentioned this is a simple chocolate cake. No egg separation method or whole egg beating till ribbon stage. This is a one bowl mixing method, i.e. mixing the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients briefly for about 2 minutes and the batter is ready! Really easy and straight forward method right? Just a reminded that this is not a light and fluffy texture sponge chocolate cake due to its mixing method. The cake is moist and slightly dense. I've reduced down the sugar in the recipe and with touch of sea salt flakes (do not use table salt), it helps to balance out the sweetness in this chocolate layer cake. Oh the chocolate frosting....I love it too! Unlike ganache made with double cream and butter, this simple ganache is made with dark chocolate and sour cream. Stir and mix and you will get a luscious and creamy ganache for frosting. There's no need to let it sit in room temperature or chill to thicken. The ganache is not too runny or thick and is perfect to use for piping like what I've did. *0*

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Nobody could resist this buttery and melty butter cookies! I've baked two batches, one original and one chocolate flavour. It was all gone after two days, some for gifting but mostly finished by my two cookie monsters at home. ^0^ I've not tasted the original Jenny's Bakery butter cookies. But this homemade version is good enough for me.

Ingredient

200gm Golden Churn Tin Butter

50g icing sugar, sifted*

50gm plain flour*

100gm cake flour

50gm corn flour

Method

Combine all flour and sift twice. Set aside.

Using a spatula, cream butter and icing sugar until pale and fluffy.

Add in flour mixture, in batches, fold until well incorporated. Do not over mix.

Transfer the dough into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle tip.

Pipe the dough onto lined baking sheet, leaving about 1 cm gap in between each cookies. This cookie will spread slightly.

Friday, September 23, 2016

Cluck, cluck, cluck! Freshly hatched cute chickies from the hot oven! ^0^ How many of you still remember or tasted the original Nabisco chicken in a biscuit crackers? It seems that it is hard to see this chicken flavoured cracker available over the supermarket shelves these recent years. Without the need to search all over the supermarket, now I can just bake a small batch at home anytime when I'm craving for it!

This little chicky cookie is as addictive as the original Nabisco version one! Though the texture is not anywhere near with the original one, but it still tasted good! Just imagine you are eating a butter cookie with chicken flavour in it. hahahah......

all the ingredients needed (except baking powder and pepper not in pic) for making this cracker

before baking...the cookie dough is easy to handle, soft and not sticky to touch.

Saturday, September 17, 2016

I've been making this Hainanese fried pork chops weekly as my kids love them so much especially with the sweet and tangy gravy drenching over the it. This is too my favourite childhood dish! I remembered it was always my duty to help with the pounding of the cream crackers and coating the pork slices with egg followed by the cracker crumbs. I'm not complaining about it as I love helping out and I think is a great parent bonding process. My boy too volunteered to help with the pounding of the cream crackers. hahaha think the next round I will delicate coating process to him too! ^0^

Thursday, September 15, 2016

I've used my homemade collagen stock as the soup base to prepare a pot of sharks fin melon soup, it tasted simply delicious! What's inside this bowl of hearty and warm soup? Sharks fin melon of course with marinated chicken thighs, dried scallops, carrots, honey dates and wolfberries. Together with the collagen stock base, it is simmered over the stove for only one hour. If you find it cumbersome to prepare the stock base in advance, you can try the usual soup cooking method*.

This is the first time I handle this sharks fin melon. There are lots of seeds embedded inside the melon!! How to remove them without removing most of the melon flesh? I try out the steaming method as it softens the flesh, making it easier to scrap out most of the seeds.

To make the chicken thighs more tasty, I marinate it with Chinese wine and a little salt

soaking the dried scallops with some Chinese wine prior to use

honey dates and wolfberries to sweeten the soup

I skipped rice for lunch today, as this bowl of rich and flavourful soup is enough to fill me up!

Ingredient (4 servings)

1kg sharks fin melon

200gm carrots, cut into chunks

4 whole chicken thigh

30gm dried scallops (*soaked in Chinese wine overnight)

2 honey dates

1 heap tbsp wolfberries, soaked till soften

1.25L homemade collagen stock*

salt to taste

Method

Peel off the skin of the melon. Place it on a plate and steam over high heat for 20mins. Gently scrape off the seeds embedded in the melon. Cut the melons into quarters.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

No salt or any seasoning added as I'm intending to use this basic collagen stock base for further usage in soup and noodle dishes. Bunch of spring onion and ginger slices are added to remove/reduce any gamy smell of the bones. Pearl barley is optional. As it has whitening skin and lowering cholesterol effects, I've added a small amount to the stock base to increase its nutritious level. Wanna have firm and smooth complexion, try making this simple natural collagen stock and add it into your daily cooking! ^0^

Ingredient

2 large pork bones, cracked

2 sets whole chicken bones

10 chicken feets

50gm pork skin

50gm spring onion

2 large slices ginger

1/4 pearl barley

Method

Rinse pork/chicken bones, chicken feets and pork skin thoroughly.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add in all the bones and pork skin and boil for 5 mins.

Drain away water and rinse cleanly.

In another clean large pot (I use a slow cooker), add in spring onion, ginger and barley. Add in the bones and pork skin. Fill the pot with 5 litres water (I used hot water to speed up the boiling process). For over the stove cooking, cover the pot and bring to boil and cook over medium heat for 1 hour. Reduce heat to the lowest, and simmer it for another 5-6 hours.

Turn on slow cooker on high and cook for 3 hours. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for another 5 hours. Turn off heat.

When the stock has cool down sufficiently, strain the mixture thorougly and discard the remnants.

Divide the stock into individual containers and cool down before chilling overnight. (At this point the stock is ready to be used, but I prefer to chill it overnight, see steps below :))

The next day when the stock has gelatinised, use a spoon and scrap off the layer of fats that have solidified on the surface.

The gelatinised stock can now be used or freeze for later usage.

After 8 hours of simmering in slow cooker, 5 litres of water have reduced to about 2.6 liters! The clear stock (after straining) is packed into individual containers then chilled overnight in fridge.

After one night in fridge, the stock has gelatinised and fats layers solidified on the surface.

Scrap off the fats layer and discard it! This will give you a healthier and clean stock base for use now!

I will update this blog post on the usage of this natural homemade collagen stock. Stay tune!

Monday, September 12, 2016

With balanced mascarpone cheese after baking the Hokkaido bake cheese tart, woke up early in the morning to bake this lovely mini cheese scones for breakfast! A cool beautiful holiday morning to enjoy this warm scones which slab thickly with butter and figs preserve. ^0^

Ingredient (15 small scones)

250gm plain flour

80gm fine sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tbsp lemon juice

75gm cold butter, cubed

4 tbsp fresh milk

125gm mascarpone cheese

Method

Sift flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Stir in sugar, salt and zest evenly.

Add in cold butter and rub it into the flour mixture until breadcrumbs liked.

Mix lemon juice, milk and mascarpone cheese evenly.

Add the milk mixture into the flour mixture and mix together gently until if forms a dough. Do not over knead or handle the dough.

Lightly flour a working surface. Pat the dough into a rectangle, about 1" tall. Use a round cutter to stamp out dough to get 15 small round dough.

Place the round cut dough onto a lined baking sheet.

Bake at preheated oven at 220 deg cel for 15 mins until lightly brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool down slightly before serving.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

My first attempt of this bake cheese tart turned out exceptionally well, cheesy and gooey....kudos to Meg Tan of Dreamersloft for her detailed write-up of her creation of this Hokkaido Bake Cheese Tart! As reference to Meg's recipe, I've made a total of 14 tart base (10 small and 4 medium ones). I must say that the tart base recipe is really easy to handle, tasted very buttery and crisp too. But I did not bake all at once! I actually assemble 6 small tarts to test out the temperature require to achieve the desired texture of the cheese filling. Hahaha the small tart is really easy to savour as two small mouthful and its gone! ^0^

Oooh I sliced this little tart while its still warm...cheesy and gooey! Though I yet to taste the real "BAKE" cheese tart selling at the ION outlet, I'm happy with my homemade bake cheese tart. ^0^

Tart base before and after baking

I'm using 180 deg cel 10mins for the small base and 12 mins for the medium base

Fill tart base with cheese custard, before and after baking

As the tart base required twice baking procedure, it may burnt easily over high temperature. I read somewhere to brush the edge of the tart base with a little water to prevent over browning. So I tried this method by brushing it with water before piping in the cheese custard. It turn out beautifully without burning edge! Second tips I'm sharing is using cold egg yolks to brush over the custard. Just before popping the tray into the oven, I've brush a coat of cold yolks over it , repeat another coating and the glaze mange to adhere to the custard giving it a golden hue after baking. :)

Sunday, September 4, 2016

With plenty of dried bamboo leaf (干竹叶) left from my the previous attempt of glutinous rice dumplings, I was vexing on what to do with the remaining bamboo leaf. Until which I discovered this interesting recipe which made use of this by coating the pork ribs with glutinous rice and rolled up into the bamboo leaf. Simplified version of the traditional glutinous rice dumplings?? ^0^ Really love this little ribs parcel which infused with the lovely fragrant of the bamboo leaf!

This dish is not complicated to prepare, just the need to soak the glutinous rice overnight and softened the dried bamboo leaf before usage. Both these steps could be done on the day before cooking, same as the pork ribs which is best to marinate it overnight. The next day when ready for steaming, just season the glutinous rice and roll onto the pork ribs, follow by rolling into the layers of softened bamboo leaf.

Ingredient

700gm pork ribs, cut into 8 sections

150gm glutinous rice

16 pieces dried bamboo leaves

Seasoning for rice

1 tsp dark soy sauce

2 tsp oyster sauce

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp pepper

Seasoning for meat

2 tbsp ginger juice

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp Chinese five spice powder

1 tsp sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp sesame oil

2 tbsp chinese wine

1 tbsp corn flour

Method

Combine ribs with seasoning and mix well. Best marinate overnight in fridge.

Rinse glutinous rice thoroughly and soak overnight. Drain away water and mix in seasoning. Set aside.

Peng's Kitchen

Welcome to Peng's Kitchen! I'm not a professional baker/chef. Just a simple Stay-at-Home-Mum enjoying baking & cooking for my 2 children and hubby. All recipes are tried and tested in my little kitchen. If you have any comments, do feel free to drop me an email at veronicachia@hotmail.com